Trust or Tyrrany

In January, 2012, my son and I were driving to one of my many chemo sessions. We debated, as we often do, this particular time about the Patriot Act and its ramifications in post 9/11 America.

As he sometimes does, he started talking about one of his conspiracy theories. His premise was that 9/11 gave the government a huge excuse to control our daily lives and developed the Patriot Act as a first step in the process. Of course, I said that the act had no  questionable motives; that instead, it was a good law, and besides, who would use it for ulterior purposes.

But then, I tried to see his point that day and in the end, we agreed to disagree, end the discussion and moved onto other topics.

Over the last year, I thought about that day and how we tried to convince each other that our view was right. Now, I will admit, I am not a fan of our current President, for reasons explained in other commentaries. But his actions or rather, lack of action since then, has made me question not only the Act, but also other legislation and fiats that this administration and the Bush administration exercised. All in the name of National Security.

The problem here is the denial and obfuscation that the President and his key players said over what was done in violation of several amendments. This has become an overriding issue since the President's reelection. And now the American people are beginning to understand the depth and breadth of what all this means.

I am not blaming Mr Obama for the law or the amendments to it that were made right up to the present day. The Congress, members of both parties, needs to share in the responsibility and culpability of what it did. All in the name of National Security.

The issue at hand is that some in the administration have taken us down a slippery slope that on its surface, appears to be a place from which we may not come back. The President needs to, is required to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. To date, he has not done this. Unlike Richard Nixon, he still has a plurality of Americans who still will give him a chance to come clean, admit that wrong was done and will fire those responsible.

His time to do this, however, is growing short, as attested by recent opinion polls. While a leader doesn't govern by his standing in the polls, Mr Obama has  demonstrated he doesn't do anything without checking. This has been his way since the beginning and the people are growing tired and weary of this.

The right things for the President to do without further delay are the following:

- Call for repeal of the Patriot Act and its amendments
- Veto any legislation involving CISPA, the  Cyber Information System Protection Act, which is said to protect us from foreign cyber attacks but in reality expands government surveillance of the Internet
- Delay implementation of the PPACA (Obamacare) areas which involve IRS oversight
- Fire Eric Holder, James Clapper and others in his administration who allowed violations to the First, Fourth, Fourteenth, and other amendments for occurring under their watch
- Fire those in the IRS, GSA and other agencies who committed fraud and other crimes related to abuses of power and other high crimes and misdemeanors
- Reveal, finally, the names of those responsible for the tragedy and subsequent deceptions related to Benghazi

By doing this, he will start to regain the trust that he has lost so dramatically since January 20. Otherwise, he will become a lame duck now, like Richard Nixon did right after the troops came home in June, 1973. Does he really want that for his legacy?

Senator Obama was appalled with the government's involvement in our lives after 9/11. Why isn't President Obama? What changed, the government or the man? I would say both, and for the worse.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "when the people trade their freedoms for security, tyranny will be the result." Is that what we want?

I know I don't.